Did the Big Ten just kill the ACC?

Posted

On the eve of a lengthy Independence Day weekend, a pair of universities and an overtly greedy conference made a decision that sent shockwaves across the college sports landscape.

Now, as a result, dozens of schools — including those in our own backyard — are about to feel game-changing repercussions.

Last Friday, California’s two most prestigious athletic institutions, Southern California (USC) and UCLA, announced their intent to leave the Pac-12 Conference, their home for more than 90 years, in favor of the Big Ten.

It was a move that my colleague and the News + Record’s resident California native, Ben Rappaport, discussed in detail in his column this week, giving his perspective as a USC fan vehemently against the financial gluttony of the schools’ higher-ups.

On the surface, the Big Ten acquiring some of college basketball and football’s most storied programs seems like it’d primarily affect only the parties that are directly involved:

• USC and UCLA, who get richer by getting a cut of the Big Ten’s upcoming media rights deal that Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde likened to a “money geyser raining down on member schools”

• the Big Ten, which benefits by acquiring two of the most lucrative brands in college athletics

• the Pac-12, which is on the precipice of doom after losing its two most coveted members

However, USC and UCLA’s departure — along with last summer’s announcement of Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC, leaving the Big-12 Conference in the dark, too — has a ripple effect that spreads much further than the West Coast.

In fact, waves are starting to appear right here in North Carolina.

Is the ACC finished?

I grew up in northwest Randolph County, just 16 miles from the Greensboro Coliseum, now the occasional home of the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament.

In my hometown during the 2000s, the week of the ACC Tournament was akin to Super Bowl week or the first weekend of March Madness — it was a BFD (big freakin’ deal).

Sometimes, our class would take field trips to either the men’s or women’s ACC Tournaments, spending valuable education time watching a first-round matchup between Maryland and Virginia Tech. And it was way better than being in class.

When we weren’t able to attend — and if we happened to be in one of the “cool” teacher’s classrooms — then we convinced our teacher to wheel out a small box TV on an old-school AV cart, where we’d get to spend class time watching Carolina or Duke or N.C. State play 11 a.m. basketball games just 16 miles down the road.

Truth be told, I owe a lot to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

As a young sports reporter — if you could call 15-year-old Victor that — the first events I covered were ACC-related.

I spent three years eating free food at the Coliseum during ACC Women’s Basketball Tournaments, trying to get the hang of press conferences, media rooms and the nerves a young sportswriter gets interviewing players.

Then, I spent two days as a high school sophomore at the ACC Football Kickoff event at Greensboro’s iconic Grandover Resort, where I was too stunned to ask questions to Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher and Jameis Winston during their press conferences after winning the national title earlier that year.

Sadly, as a result of Friday’s announcement, students in North Carolina may not have those same experiences as I did.

Because, the harsh reality is, the ACC could be on the brink of a breakup. And that’s a tough, unfair pill for North Carolinians to swallow.

With the recent announcements of Texas/Oklahoma to the SEC and USC/UCLA to the Big Ten, its beginning to look like the SEC and Big Ten — already the NCAA’s wealthiest conferences — are just getting bigger and richer, while the nation’s other three Power 5 conferences, including the ACC, are left out in the cold.

In reality, the ACC can’t financially keep up with the likes of the SEC and Big Ten, namely because of their less-than-ideal TV rights deal with ESPN, which lasts until 2036 and pays significantly less than the SEC’s deal with the same company (the ACC’s $240 million annually to the SEC’s $300 million).

Inside Carolina’s Greg Barnes reported that in 2029, if the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams — the CFP’s contract runs through Jan. 2026, meaning the playoff may not even make it to 2029 — then the SEC is expected to pay out $117.8 million to each member school, compared to the ACC’s suggested payout of $61.5 million per school.

That’s a massive gap of nearly double the ACC’s amount. Could you blame schools for wanting a cut of that cash cow?

Revenue is only one piece of the puzzle, though.

Competition is another whole can of worms.

There’s a strong sentiment that, eventually, the SEC and Big Ten may form “megaconferences,” breaking up the current FBS landscape in college football in order to primarily compete between the two conferences, where national champions could only be declared from either the SEC or Big Ten.

While that would inherently ruin everything people love about college football, morphing it into some sort of undergraduate NFL, the next few years could see schools from other conferences, like the ACC and Pac-12, trying to fight their way into one of the megaconferences so they aren’t left on the outside looking in, no matter what happens down the road.

Rumors are swirling that UNC/Duke may be a package deal for the SEC or, thanks to their ties in basketball, they could jump ship from the ACC to join USC, UCLA and a plethora of historic programs in the Big Ten.

Others have popped up saying that Clemson, Florida State and Miami — the ACC’s only legitimate football powers — could get poached by the SEC to make it an even more unstoppable force on the gridiron.

No matter where you look, bloggers from just about every non-SEC/Big Ten Power 5 school are discussing what their respective schools should do. There have been suggestions that UNC, Duke, Florida State, Miami, Clemson, N.C. State, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Louisville from the ACC; Oregon, Washington and Arizona from the Pac-12; and Kansas and Oklahoma State from the Big-12 will all somehow, someway find their way into one of the NCAA’s inevitable megaconferences. Or at least that they should try to make it happen.

As of now, though, nothing is clear other than the fact that in the coming years, thanks to the poaching tactics of the SEC and Big Ten, things are bound to change in a chaotic frenzy of conference realignment.

And, truthfully, whatever happens is destined to be a negative thing for the majority of schools, student-athletes and fans.

Missed in all of the hullabaloo is the way this affects non-revenue athletes, including but not limited to the travel concerns of having to fly across the country from New Jersey (Rutgers) to California (USC, UCLA) just because the schools are now in the same conference despite their geographical separation.

I don’t want to sugarcoat it. This entire situation stinks.

As a UNC fan and alumnus, I feel confident that, even if the ACC falls apart, the Tar Heels will find a home somewhere due to their massive brand and competitiveness in plenty of sports besides basketball.

But when it comes to other schools such as Boston College, Wake Forest or even Duke to a certain extent, it worries me that this may be the beginning of the end for their place in major college athletics.

In the coming years, we may see the splintering of conferences like the ACC, the destruction of rivalries like Carolina-N.C. State, the near-complete exclusion of schools outside of the Power 2 and a whole lot of other changes to the way we consume college sports.

There are way more questions than answers out there, including: Will Notre Dame forego its football independence and decide to fully align with the ACC in a move that would potentially save the conference? What will happen to sports outside of football if megaconferences begin to take shape? How will this affect history and tradition in sports like football and basketball?

Buckle up, because it’s gonna be one helluva ride. There’s no going back now.

Reporter Victor Hensley can be reached at vhensley@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @Frezeal33.